Skirt and trousers hanger



y 7, 1953 F. J. URBAN 2,644,621

SKIRT AND TROUSERS HANGER Filed July 24, 1952 INVENTO Rp fi'an/r J. Urban WXZWW A-r-rn R N EYS Patented July 7, 1953 SKIRT AND TROUSERS HANGER Frank J. Urban, Toledo, Ohio, assignor to Magic Hanger, Ina, Toledo, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application July 24, 1952, Serial 0. 300,609

Claims.

1 This application pertains to skirt and trousers hangers designed for hanging such garments which have generally circular edges such as the waistbands of skirts and trousers and the cuffs of trousers.

The object of this invention is to provide a hanger which maybe inserted in the waistband or cuff of a skirt or trousers by a simple one-hand operation, which is resiliently retained in the garment to be supported, which is designed so that garment removing force tends to increase the garment retaining force and which is so designed as to facilitate its bein changed in dimensions.

These and more specific objects and advantages and an understanding of the construction by means of which difficulties inherent in most prior art garment hanger are overcome will be more apparent from the specification which follows and from the drawings,'in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of a garment hanger embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged view in perspective of certain details of a hanger embodying the invention.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a further enlarged detailed vertical sectional view taken on the line 44 of Fig. 3.

Most prior art garment hangers, particularly those designed to support trousers or skirts, fall within two general classifications. First among these is the type in which clips or pins are used to mechanically pinch portions of the cloth to secure a firm hold thereon and, secondly, are those in which elements on the hangers are actually inserted into portions of the garments, for example hooks in the cuffs of trousers. These types of prior art hangers have a common fault. First they are usually of a certain size and thus will not operate successfully on garments varying as much in dimensions as the variance between, say, a size skirt and a size 40 skirt. Secondly, hangers designed for supporting skirts are not well designed for supporting trousers and vice versa.

To overcome these objections to most prior art hangers a hanger embodying the invention relies upon resilient force acting perpendicularly to the force tending to remove the garment from the hanger and incorporates means whereby the retaining force is slightly increased if for some reason the garment tends to be torn off the hanger. A hanger embodying the invention thus has a formed wire body incorporating a hook portion Ifl,'generally parallel" body members II and I2, cross arms I3 and i4 and oppositely directed support arms I sand I 6. This body may be economically formed from a single length of resilient wire. The endsof the support arms I5 and I6 are turned over generally horizontally to form hooks I! (see Figs. 3 and 4) which are designed to be inserted in any of a plurality of molded openings v2 I8 formed in a series in each of a pair of grippersI9.

The wire from which the various elements of the hanger body are formed should be flexible to permit the two body members II and I2 to be flexed inwardly toward each other which, because of the cross arms I3, and I4, pulls the two support arms I5 and I6 inwardly lessening the overall distance between the ends of the grippersl9. In order to urge the arms I5 and .I6 outwardly, i. e.,

to separate the body members II and I2, a small spiral spring 20 is engaged with .a pair of guides 2i which may preferably be molded from a synthetic resinous material and which are identical with each other, being assembled in reverse rela-'- tion in a hanger embodying the invention. Each of the uides 2| has a tubular portion 22in which is molded an opening 23 through which a support arm I5 or it extends. Each of the guides 2 I also has an upper recess .24 into which extends a corner 25 joining a cross arm, for example I3; to its support arm I6. The guides 2| thus are slid over the ends of the support arms I5 and I6 inwardly until the corners 25 between thesupport arms I5.

urges the two guides 2I toward each other to thrust the support arms I5 and I6 outwardly.

The grippers I9, of which two are necessary in V a hanger embodying the invention, are identical, being mounted in reversed position on the ends-of support arms I5 and I6. Each of the grippers'IS has an elongated portion 21 and a wing portion 28. The elongated portion 27 has two sets of parallel ribs 29 on one face and 30 on the opposite face. The pairs of ribs 29 and 30 are in line with each other as can best be seen in Fig. 4. The openings I8 extend through the portion 21 into the grooves between the ribs 29 and 30 and are of such size as to receive the end of the hooks I! on the support arms I5 or I6. As is best seen in Fig. 3, the openings I8 may be flared at the side leading into the ribs 30 to facilitate insertion of the ends of the hooks [1.

The ribs 29 are of sufficient height as to guard the ends of the hooks I! which protrude therebetween preventing them from snagging on the material from which the garments are constructed.

The ribs 38 are provided with inwardly extending snap ribs 3| which extend toward each other asuiiicient distance and are located above the bottom of the grooves between the ribs 30 a sufficient distance such that the wire from which the support arm I5 or IE is fabricated will snap between and beneath the snap ribs 3|. Each of the ribs 30 may have, for example, three snap ribs along its length, the pairs of snap ribs 3| being opposed. Thus when it is desired to change the overall length of a hanger embodying the invention, eachof the grippers I9 can be easchaser can buy a replacement part, for

ily removed from the end of its support arm 15 or Hiby prying on the gripper l9 to remove its supportarm or 16 from beneath the snap ribs 31 and then disengaging the hooks I! from its opening 18 so that the gripper 19 can be replaced at a greater or lesser distance out .the support arm l5 or I6. I

Each of the grippers 19 has the wing portion 28 which may be provided with a plurality of garment gripping teeth 32 on its outer edge, ex-

tending generally perpendicularly 'to the ribs 29 and 30 and thus generally vertically when the hanger is in its normal position.

It-will be observed in'lig. 1 that each of the support arms 15 and 'lfi'is'bent upwardly, for example, at the position indicated by the'reference numbers 33. right in Fig. 1, this establishes a fiexure point about whichthe arm 15 or It can bend swinging its end hooks ll along the are indicated by the broken line 34 in Fig. 1 and similarly swinging the outer edge of'the gripper 19 along the arc-indicated by the reference character 35. A hanger embodying the invention is'placed 1n garment supporting position by squeezing the body members H and 12 between the fingers of one hand to pull the support arms l5 and IS in wardly, the movement being controlled by the guides 2| and the .spring 29 being extended. After the arms I5 and 15 have been pulled inwardly a distance such that the overall length between-the teeth .32 of the two opposed grippers I9 is less than the distance across the waistband or end of the garment being supported, the grippers l9 areinserted into the garment and thebody members I! and [2 released, allowing .the spring 29 to contract, thrusting the gripto contact with the garment. When a force acts to pull the garment downwardly off the hanger, for example, if it becomes snagged or otherwise is pulled upon, the first action is to swing the grippers l9 through the are 35 around the point 33. Inasmuch as the ends of the support arms l5 and 16 are angled upwardly, such swinging motion tends to increase the horizontal maximum dimension between the outer edges of the grippers 1 9 and thus to more firmly grasp the garment mounted 'on the hanger. Further forcetending to pull thegarment off the hanger must extend the spring 20 before the support arms l5 and I6 move. inwardly to release the garment. By properly selecting the strength of the spring 20 this force may be controlled so that a garment can be pulled ofi the hanger without tearing the mapers l9 outwardly in terial from which it is made.

In addition to the operational features of a hanger embodying the invention which have been described, its design and construction facilitate manufacture and assembly and permit the replacement of any portion of the hanger which maybe damaged or broken in use. A hanger embodying the invention can be sold in disassembled form, i. e., the main body of wire, a pair of identical grippers IS, a pair of identical guides 2| and a spring 20 can be placed in a unitary package'and the purchaser can easily assemble the hanger by following instructions on the package, thus still further reducing the cost of the hanger and keeping the retail sales price lower. Because of this ease of assembly if, for example, the hanger should tlioefldropplcid herwise damage e p 0r stepped on or ot instance one of the grippers 19 or theslides 2| or even As can best be seen at the the main body itself, atfla very low cost and "can repair the hanger by replacing the broken part.

So far as is known hangers embodying the invention are the first to be produced having any form of tmechanism where individual parts are all simple to assemble and disassemble permitting'the hanger to be repaired by any purchaser.

Having described my invention as embodied in its improved form, I claim:

1. A hanger for skirts and the like comprisv ing, in combination, a hook, lateraflly spaced spective cross arms and outwardly extending sections terminating in upwardly inclined {gen erally co-planar end. sections, .a garmentcontactor on the end of each of said end sections and a spring connectedto both of said crossarms each of said body elements,-said .crossarmsdying closely adjacentand being. oppositely :rdirected inwardly, each ofsaid cross arms terminating at a point 'generally'beneathrtheother of said body elements; a generallyzhorizontal support arm on the lower endof eachtof said cross arms, each of said support arms extending generally oppositely to its cross-arm and horizontally beyond its associated bodyelement, the sections of said supportarms from the junctions with said cross arms to the points generally beneath -the junctions of associated; cross arms and body elements, lying parallel and closely adjacent; a spring stretched parallel to such sections of said support arms and acting .to pull the cross arm-support arm junctions inwardly; and a garment contactor on. the..end"- of each of said support arms.

3.'.In a hanger according to claim 2 theim-' provement that consists in the "supportiarm's havingupwardly inclined end sections whereby the normal horizontal" dimension between said-agar ment contactors is smaller than the horizontal dimension therebetween when said garment contactors are pulled downwardly tending-Ito straighten said support arms. I 4.A hanger according to claim 2 th'at ineludes the improvement of cooperating means at the outermost portions of said support arms and on said garment contactors for relative adjustment thereof for adjusting 'the size of said hanger horizontally for garments of varying size.

5. In a hanger according to claim 2' the improvement that consists in a guide element en *ga'geable with the junction points bet'ween' each of said cross arms [and its associated support arm and'thatslides 'along' the other of said support arms as a guide.

J. URBAN.

' References Cited in 'thefile of'this patent- UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,545,637 Tibbitts Mar. 20, 1951 2,570,043 Ambrosino et a1 Oct. 2, 1951 

